Ok... but now in French

Yesterday was Saturday. And as I mentioned on Friday, I went out with people from my class to a few museums! It was really cool.This is a barg that passed while I was sitting

I started the day out by going to Bordeaux to wander a bit before meeting up with the others. I wanted to get a book at the bookstore, maybe a few presents for family, a croissant, and then go to the river and eat and read. So that is what I did! Since on Friday I bought an "unlimited" tram pass, I felt completely free to come and go as I please.
It was wonderful. The bookstore was crowded as usual, but it was fun. There is only a small section for books in their original language, but the section holds an amazing assortment of new and old, popular and random books from mostly America, Britain or Spain. I found two cheap books, and walked out of the store a happy camper.
I then took my favorite walk to a small "Champion" store to get some croissants and perhaps lunch (which would turn out to be a part of a baguette and cheese). Its really interesting how they have stores set up here. They are usually the first floor of EVERY building, but in this case it was a building all on its own. It is a circular building that seems to only have MAYBE 2 floors, but when you get in... you realize it is MUCH bigger than it seems. Going a few floors down and up, it probably has 4 floors, though I have only really been on 2. It is more of a small mall, since there are many little shops, each with a different item to sell. There is a produce market, a wine seller, a chocolatier (how do you spell that?), a pastry shop, a cheese shop, a cafe, and I think something like the equivalent of a Sprint store. There are more, but I have not been to them, so I don't remember. But most of the lowest floor is the "Champion" where it is very cheap to get decent food of all sorts.
Anyway, after getting my food, I walked down past the Grand Theatre and to the river. As it was Saturday, there were lots of people doing the same thing. The river walk was full of families and individuals enjoying the scenery. There is a part of the path that has been made especially so that the bikes and rollerbladers who wish to ride by the river do so, quietly. Seriously! I don't know if it is just particularly smooth, but you can't hear a thing when they pass. Unless the bike itself has issues, but that is unavoidable.
I found a small bench that faced the river not far from the building (more like a Palace) where the King used to stay when he visited Bordeaux. It was beautiful. The gardens along the river are all precisely placed. Each row of every kind of flower is so carefully tended that, even though it is winter, it makes SUCH a pretty design. Then the walks are all gravel (the walks in among the flowers, not by the river itself) and also well tended, so everything seemed perfect. It was cold out, so it was only completely enjoyable when the sun was good and out, but none the less, it was a beautiful setting.
I sat there for a while, reading my book and eating my croissants. After maybe an hour more clouds came, so I left my bench and decided to head towards the meeting place that I had arranged with the others.

On my way I found a few shops that still had all of their merchandise on sale. I have to say, if there is one thing that Bordeaux has really gotten me into: its shopping. I don't even buy very often, but to just look and enjoy the French fashion... its so fascinating. Its such a completely different world inside the store than out. Outside you have sculptures and cobblestones. Inside you have silk and cotton woven in such modern designs that I don't understand how your supposed to wear the thing! Its the funniest. I confess that this time I did buy things... but they are presents, so it hardly counts :)

After that I went and met up with the other students. I thought it was supposed to be a largish group, but it turns out that only Vesta (a woman from Russia) and I were able to make it. I am glad of it though, because we were by far the most enthusiastic of the class to go and see the museums, so I knew that we would enjoy it.
The best part about it just being the two of us though, was the fact that we could only speak in French. She has VERY little English, and I have.... yep, NO Russian, so French was the only language we could use. I thought at first that I would really not be able to communicate anything, but as the day went on, we were able to have more and more conversations that consisted of more than just "Oui, j'aime beaucoup le cafe!" or "ou est le toilette?"
We went to 3 museums. First we went to one that housed a fine collection of interior decoration. It consisted mostly of the private collection from the Duc de Bordeaux's family. It was all in French, so I may be wrong about that. It was lovely though. Each room had different furniture, metalwork and ceramics. Also a bung of piano fortes that were just gorgeous! I have decided that if I ever get a set of porcelain or china dishes, I want them to be white with blue and green vines and flowers, just like one set there. It was SO pretty.
After that we went to the museum of art. I was not sure what to expect, but it was amazing. A huge building that is the very image of a classic art museum, it had a wonderful collection of classic art. I say classic, because I am not sure what all genres the museum had, but it was mostly HUGE oil paintings that were painted a hundred or hundreds of hears ago. It was the sort of thing that you had to take your time over. There was SO much detail (or lack of detail) that you could never take the whole painting in at one glance. They had benches placed in intervals throughout the whole gallery to allow for more time to be taken while examining the paintings. I would say my only complaint was that the lighting was such that I could not get at all close to a painting and not have a glare. I know, your not supposed to be TOO close to a painting, but I wanted to see a little more detail, and I couldn't! So that made me a bit disappointed.
After the art museum we went to the Natural History museum that I have gone to before. This time I remembered to take my camera with me (and yes, we are allowed to take pics, though without the flash). We didn't take as long to go through as I did when I was alone, but it was fine. We were both tired, and our feet hurt (as we communicated to each other by saying "ma pied....." and a face of pain) and we were both ready for a break. So we took one.
Outside of the museum there was a cafe that seemed very inviting, so we decided to have a drink. It was just about 5pm by now, but I had not had anything to eat except the croissants, so while Vesta ordered a large beer, I stuck with the cappuccino I had been craving for the whole day. It was delicious. Over our drinks we tried our hands at ever more complicated conversations. And we did alright! She talked more about her reasons why she is studying here (since she is 30 and one of the oldest in our class) and I talked about my siblings. She is an only child, so to hear about 5 sisters and 2 brothers was a whole new experience for her. Since my vocab is limited, I mostly just talked about who was visiting me, and (now don't get a big head hun, its just an easy subject) how Nils played a bunch of sports in high school and how I am unable to play many sports now. It was really nice, since we had more conversations we were able to really speak. It was quick, it was understood, and it had at least a bit of depth to it. I was REALLY glad for it. A few more conversations like that, and I think I will improve in my French a great deal.The Duc de Bordeaux as a young boy












After the drinks Vesta and I parted ways. This was good, since Dibb had called and they were going to a bar to watch the Rugby game between France and Ireland. I met them there and we spent the rest of the night watching the game and then trying to figure out just what the rules in the crazy game are! Have you ever sat and watched a full game? One of the coolest sports I have ever seen, and yet the whole time I was expecting them to carry each player off the field dead. Johanna kept saying it was less violent than Football (American style) but I have a hard time believing that. They don't even have padding!!! One player did get bloodied up, and I almost wanted to cry. It was SO intense. We plan to go back and watch another one next week, so that should be fun.

Well, I think I have caught you all up on my life here. Tomorrow I hope to catch the tram and go to the Botanical Gardens that are close to the city center. I will see if I can drag some others with me, but I might just go and do it by myself... we will see.

I love you all! Have a great rest of Sunday :)